Customer Reviews

Take Twelve

5 star:		(4)
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One who likes jazz must know who lee morgan is because 40 or so out of the many bluenote albums that alfred lion recorded in the mid 50's to the late 60's, had lee on them and 25 of them were under his own name. but he did record a few albums for the prestige/riverside labels and one was take twelve. You might listen to it and say: not his best but not his worst either(if he ever did record any bad albums). Take twelve is definitly the best track starting out with a latin feel and then turning out in a wayne shorter sort of way. If you notice, most of lee's compositions are blues except "a waltz for fran" and most of his albums have at least one waltz. for jazz fans who want to listen to lee morgan, I would reccomend "Search for the new land, 'Sidewinder', 'lee way', (coltrane's)'blue trane' with 19 year old lee on it, and all the great blakey and the messengers albums from '58 to '61 which have lee on them as well.

This record is full of great songs performed at a very high level. Morgan is great all the way through, maybe he doesn't hit all the notes with the sharpess of some of his earlier records but he is at an inventive high point. Barry Harris also gets 5 stars for his excellent support and improvisation.

Get this and hear a master at work.

By way of bias reference Lee Morgan and Clifford Jordan are two of my favorite musicians. I have virtually all of Lee Morgan's releases and consider Take Twelve and LeeWay his two best. LeeWay is an all-star cast (Blakey on drums,Jackie McLean on alto, Timmons piano) and features some great Cal Massey compositions. Leeway is special because of its purity. The greatest musicians in the world deep in their groove taking us on a magical mystery tour without embellishments. Take Twelve is essentially the same type of groove with a different all star cast. I don't dig needless pyrotechnics and gimmicks. I love to hear genius in the moment of its greatest collective creativity. I love the different time signatures and all the tunes. Unlike other reviewers, they all sound equally great. I believe that this is the best work I have ever heard from the supporting cast of Barry Harris, Bob Cranshaw and Louis Hayes. Hayes' subtle time keeping; Cranshaw's resounding accent bass which constantly underscores where the music is; Barry Harris' tasteful understatement. But the biggest treat is the wonderful interplay between Morgan and Clifford Jordan. Their tones are so complementary when playing harmonic lines. Both develop their solos with the most insightful articulation of the tunes essential core. I love this recording.

This Philadelphia bred trumpeter played with some of the Jazz giants including John Coltrane(also Philly bred), Tina Brooks(talented but short-lived life), Paul Chambers, Diz, Freddie Hubbard, Quincy Jones, Elvin Jones, Jackie McLean, Philly Joe Jones and of course The Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey. Incredible list of musicians he played with. Take Twelve came out in 1962 after Lee was released by Blakey for his heroin addiction. While this was a troubled time in his life. I love Take Twelve and his hard charging but melodic trumpet playing. Take Twelve is clearly the best cut on this record.